Turn your roof into a long-term energy solution with professionally installed solar panels designed to help reduce electricity costs and improve energy efficiency.
HIES Consumer Code member · NAPIT registered · MCS certified · Trustpilot reviewed
HCE Ltd designs and installs solar PV systems for UK homeowners. We're MCS-certified, NAPIT-registered and members of the HIES Consumer Code, and every job starts the same way: a free, no-obligation survey and clear, honest advice about whether solar genuinely suits your home. If it doesn't, we'll say so.
Most installations are completed within 1–2 days, and panels are designed to last 25–30 years — so the decisions made at the survey and design stage matter for decades. Here's how the whole process works, what it typically costs in the UK, and what to expect on the day.
Local roofs raise local questions, so we've written the county detail up separately: solar panel installation for Surrey homes, Sussex solar installation, solar installation in Hampshire, solar panels across Berkshire and south-west London each cover the light, the housing stock and the planning quirks of their patch, and the town pages go a level deeper — solar panels Guildford, for instance, carries a PVGIS yield run for the town itself. If the number you want first is the price, the solar panel installation cost page sets out the official 2026 figures line by line.
North of London the detail is newer. Solar panels in Bedfordshire covers the county's three councils and a PVGIS yield run for its main towns; solar panel costs in Bedfordshire applies the national figures to a Bedford roof; solar panel grants in Bedfordshire sets out which schemes are actually open there; and the Bedfordshire planning permission guide covers conservation areas and Article 4 directions council by council.
Quick answer
Solar panel installation:
Figures: Energy Saving Trust (27 August 2026), DESNZ Solar PV cost data (May 2026), PVGIS 5.3 — national and modelled figures, not an HCE quote.
Every HCE installation follows the same straightforward path, from first call to switch-on. No pressure at any stage, just clear advice.
A free, no-obligation callback to talk through your home, your electricity usage and what you want solar to do — lower bills, more independence from price rises, or groundwork for a battery or EV charger later. This is a conversation, not a sales pitch. You'll get straight answers to your questions and a clear idea of whether it's worth going further.
We survey the property properly before quoting: roof size, pitch and orientation, shading from chimneys, trees or neighbouring buildings, the condition of the roof covering, loft access, and where the inverter and cabling will run. We also confirm at this stage whether your installation falls under permitted development — most do — or whether any planning constraints apply. From the survey we design a system sized to your actual usage, not the biggest array that fits. You get a written quote that sets out exactly what's included: panels, inverter, mounting kit, scaffolding, electrical work and certification.
Most residential installations are completed within 1–2 days, depending on the system size and property type. Scaffolding goes up beforehand, the panels and electrical work are done by qualified installers, and the system is tested and commissioned before we leave.
You receive the paperwork that matters: your MCS certificate (which you'll need to register for export payments), electrical certification, warranty documents for the panels and inverter, and a walkthrough of how to read your system's performance. If anything is unclear after we've gone, you can call us.
Solar panels generate direct current (DC) electricity whenever daylight hits them. An inverter converts that into the alternating current (AC) your home runs on. Your appliances use the solar power first, and anything you're not using at that moment is either exported to the grid or — if you have one — stored in a battery for the evening.
Two points that surprise people. First, panels don't need direct sunshine: they still generate on cloudy days, just at a reduced output compared to bright conditions, which is why solar stacks up in the UK climate. We've written more on this in do solar panels work on cloudy days. Second, you stay connected to the grid throughout — solar reduces what you buy, and the grid covers the gap at night and in midwinter.
A smart meter measures what you export, which is how you get paid for surplus power under the Smart Export Guarantee (more on that below).
Most UK roofs are, but “most” isn't “all” — and this is exactly what the free survey establishes before you commit to anything.
A south-facing roof gives the highest output, but east- and west-facing roofs are genuinely viable: a split array catches morning sun on one face and afternoon sun on the other, which actually matches when many households use electricity. North-facing-only roofs are usually a poor investment, and we'll tell you if that's your situation.
A chimney, dormer, TV aerial or neighbouring tree that shades part of the array for part of the day matters more than most people expect. The survey maps shading across the day, and the design works around it — sometimes with panel-level optimisation, sometimes by avoiding the shaded area altogether.
Panels will sit on your roof for 25–30 years, so the roof covering and timbers need to be sound first. If your roof needs work, it's far cheaper to do it before the panels go on, and we'd rather tell you that at survey than discover it on installation day.
In most cases, domestic solar falls under permitted development, meaning no planning application is needed — subject to conditions. On a pitched roof, panels must project no more than 0.2 metres from the roof slope and must not sit higher than the highest part of the roof (excluding chimneys); on a flat roof the limit is 0.6 metres above it. Listed buildings always need listed building consent. In a conservation area the exclusion is narrower than most people think: it applies to equipment on a wall, balcony or roof enclosure fronting a highway, so roof slopes — front ones included — stay permitted, while a flat-roof array on a conservation area or National Landscape roof needs a prior-approval determination from the council first. An Article 4 direction can remove rights street by street, which is why we check designations at the survey. (Schedule 2 Part 14 Class A of the GPDO 2015, as amended by S.I. 2026/896, in force 27 August 2026.)
Honest answer: it depends on your roof, your usage and the system size — which is why we quote from a survey rather than a postcode. But the national picture gives you a sensible starting point, and it moved this year, so the figures below were re-read on 25 September 2026.
The Energy Saving Trust's solar advice, updated 27 August 2026, now describes a typical home system as 4.5 kWp — around 12 panels over 20 to 30m² of roof — costing around £7,600 installed. On its own payback table, with export payments included and fuel prices as of July 2026, a London home reaches break-even in about 9 years. Earlier versions of this page carried the Trust's previous 3.5 kWp basis; we have replaced it rather than quietly leaving it there, because a figure with a date is worth more than a figure that sounds familiar.
The gap between panel prices online and an installed quote is not a markup, it is the job. A real price covers:
Two things help the arithmetic at the moment. Installations are zero-rated for VAT until 31 March 2027, reverting to 5% from 1 April 2027. And to earn anything for what you export, GOV.UK requires that both the installation and the installer are MCS-certified — or certified to an accredited equivalent — and that you have a meter capable of half-hourly export readings. Export rates themselves are supplier-set and must be above zero under Ofgem's rules, which is why we never print one.
To be clear: these are typical UK figures from public sources, not an HCE quote. Your numbers depend on your roof and your usage, and that is what the free survey works out. For a deeper walkthrough of the sums, read how much can solar panels save, test your own bill in the savings calculator, and if storage is part of the plan, the solar battery storage cost page breaks that side down the same way.
A second official yardstick arrived in May 2026. DESNZ's solar PV cost data for 2025/26, drawn from 264,742 installations, puts the median installed cost at £1,595 per kW for systems up to 4 kW and £1,546 per kW for 4–10 kW systems, with a domestic retrofit mean of £1,651 per kW in that larger band. On those medians a 4 kWp system is about £6,200 and a 4.5 kWp system about £7,000 — the cost of an average job rather than a package price, and broadly where the Trust's £7,600 lands once the retrofit mean is used instead of the median. The full breakdown, including what moves a quote away from the average, is on our cost page.
Solar panels are designed to last 25–30 years, and many systems continue to perform well beyond that timeframe. Output declines gradually over the decades rather than stopping — a well-made panel in year 25 still produces the large majority of its original output, and manufacturers publish performance warranties setting out exactly what's guaranteed year by year. Ask to see them; we'll happily walk you through what they mean.
The inverter is the hardest-working component and typically won't match the panels' lifespan, so it's worth understanding how yours is warranted when you compare quotes. Beyond that, maintenance is minimal: UK rain does most of the cleaning, and your main job is glancing at the generation figures occasionally so you'd notice if something changed.
Less disruption than most people expect. Here's the usual shape of it.
Scaffolding is erected a day or two before, so access is ready when the installation team arrives. On the day, the roof team fits the mounting rails — anchored to the rafters, not just the tiles — and secures the panels to the rails. Meanwhile the electrical side is prepared: the inverter is mounted (typically in the loft, a garage or a utility area), cabling is run, and the system is connected to your consumer unit.
Your electricity will be switched off briefly during the final connection — usually well under an hour — and it's helpful if someone is home at the start of the day to confirm access and cable routes. The system is then tested, commissioned and switched on, and most homes are generating before the team leaves. Most residential installations are completed within 1–2 days, depending on the system size and property type; scaffolding usually comes down within the following week.
Afterwards, the installation is registered and your MCS certificate and electrical paperwork follow — the documents you'll need for export payments.
The honest answer to "how long does a solar panel installation take", then, is one to two days on the roof and several weeks for the whole journey — and the weeks are the paperwork, not the work. A system of 16 A per phase or less (3.68 kW) is notified to your network operator under G98, before commissioning or within 28 days after it. Anything larger needs a G99 application approved before the installers arrive — a 4 kW inverter draws 17.39 A, just over the line — and the operators that publish a target aim to answer the small fast-track applications within ten working days. We handle both routes; the only thing you notice is the date.
What genuinely slows a job is a roof that needs repair first, a listed building waiting on consent, a flat-roof array on conservation-area or National Landscape land that needs a prior-approval determination, or a G99 queue. The full sequence, from the first call to the certificate landing on the mat, is in how long a solar panel installation takes, from survey to switch-on.
When your panels generate more than your home is using, the surplus doesn't go to waste. Under the Smart Export Guarantee (SEG) — the Ofgem-administered scheme that replaced the old feed-in tariff for new installations — electricity suppliers with 150,000 or more domestic customers must offer a tariff that pays you for every kilowatt-hour you export.
The practical details worth knowing:
Want to see these numbers for your own bill? Try the interactive savings calculator — same cited figures, your inputs.
Page-specific questions. The general ones — savings, cloudy days, planning, lifespan — are covered above and on our main FAQs page.
The Energy Saving Trust, updated 27 August 2026, describes a typical home system as 4.5 kWp — around 12 panels over 20 to 30m² of roof — at about £7,600 installed, and its own payback table puts a London home at roughly 9 years once export payments are counted, on July 2026 fuel prices. Five things move your number away from that: the array size your roof can actually take, whether scaffolding is straightforward, how far the cable run is to the consumer unit, whether a battery is part of the job, and whether the connection stays inside the G98 limit or needs a G99 application first. Installations are zero-rated for VAT until 31 March 2027, then 5%. Ours comes from a survey and arrives itemised.
Every line you are paying for, so you can compare two quotes properly: panel count, make and wattage; inverter make and rating; mounting system; DC and AC isolation and protection; scaffolding; the MCS-certified installation itself; the G98 notification or G99 application to the network operator; commissioning and handover documents; and the workmanship warranty alongside the manufacturer warranties. If a quote is a single number with a system size next to it, ask for the breakdown — the cheaper headline is often the one with scaffolding, protection or the grid paperwork missing.
Yes. Solar significantly reduces what you buy from the grid, but it doesn’t remove the bill: you’ll still import power at night, in the depths of winter, and whenever usage outpaces generation — plus the daily standing charge. Anyone who promises solar will wipe out your bill entirely is overselling. What solar does is shrink the unit-rate part of the bill for 25–30 years and shield you from a portion of every future price rise.
Almost every roof installation needs scaffolding — it’s a safety requirement for working at height, not an optional extra. It’s arranged as part of the job, and your written quote will set out exactly what’s included so there are no surprise costs on the day.
Not when they’re installed properly. On a standard pitched roof, the mounting rails anchor to the rafters beneath the tiles using brackets designed for the job, and flashings keep the weatherproofing intact. The survey checks your roof’s condition first — if we find tiles or timbers that need attention, we’ll tell you before installation rather than build on top of a problem.
Sometimes, but it’s rarely as simple as clipping on extras. The inverter is sized to the original array, and a larger system can change your grid-connection paperwork with the network operator. If you think your usage will grow — an EV, a heat pump, a growing family — tell us at the design stage and we’ll size the system, or at least the inverter, with that in mind. It’s cheaper to plan headroom than to retrofit it.
Very little. There are no moving parts, and UK rain keeps panels reasonably clean on most roofs — occasional cleaning helps if you’re near trees or on a shallow pitch. The sensible habit is checking your generation figures now and then, so a fault or a new source of shading gets noticed rather than quietly costing you output.
One to two days on site for most homes, and several weeks end to end. The free survey comes first, then a written itemised quote, then the grid paperwork: a system of 16 A per phase or less (3.68 kW) is notified to the network operator under G98, before commissioning or within 28 days after it, while a larger inverter needs a G99 application approved before the work starts. Scaffolding goes up a day or two before the installation and usually comes down within the following week. Registration, the MCS certificate and the electrical certification follow the commissioning — those are the documents an export tariff asks for.
Usually not. Roof-mounted solar on a house in England is permitted development under Class A of Part 14 of the GPDO, as amended from 27 August 2026, provided the panels project no more than 0.2 m from a pitched roof, sit no higher than the highest part of the roof excluding chimneys, and rise no more than 0.6 m above a flat roof. In a conservation area the exclusion covers equipment on a wall, balcony or roof enclosure fronting a highway, not roof slopes; a flat-roof array on conservation-area or National Landscape land needs a prior-approval determination first; a listed building needs listed building consent; and an Article 4 direction can remove rights on specific streets. We check all of it at the survey.
Your network operator (the company that runs the local wires, separate from your supplier) is notified as part of the installation paperwork — that’s handled for you. You’ll only deal with your supplier when you set up a Smart Export Guarantee tariff to get paid for what you export, and you can shop around suppliers for that.
Request a free, no-obligation survey and we'll give you straight answers about your roof, your likely generation and your payback — and if solar isn't right for your home, we'll tell you that too. No pressure, just clear advice.
Get a free quote · Call 0204 547 1892 · Or see the equipment we install: EnSmart systems
